We've got news from the MPEG-LA, regarding any possible H264 license changes they might institute at the end of this year. More specifically, they've put out a press release stating that they will not change one specific aspect of the license that governs the AVC Patent Portfolio (to which h264 belongs): MPEG-LA will not collect royalties for internet video that is free to end users. The press release is highly confusing, so let's de-construct what's going on here.

For me, that sounds like h264, as Theora keeps being described as "almost" or "just/about as good". The good thing is that something better is going to come along in a year or two, and then we can reevaluate and jump to the next best option.

If it's open source... if it's costly... if it's written in Basic, no one cares, as long as it's awesome.